Post-Trail experience?

imported
#1

What was everyone’s experience in the ‘other world’ after finishing/getting off the AT? Especially with your consumption patterns? Was there a change?

Lion Cub '03

#2

Coming back to the real world, or perhaps, leaving the real realm of total submersion in the sanctity of nature, was very difficult. At first, I could barely handle being in a crowded room surrounded by people. That soon wore off as I live in a crowded college town with crowded parties, meetings, and workshops. I noticed that it was a luxary to be able to stop and eat whatever I wanted: ice cream, pizza, really good juice…etc. It wasn’t long before I put the 15 lbs I lost back on. I guess one of the hardest things to deal with is, “I just finished the completion of a dream of a lifetime, WHAT NEXT?” “WHat could possibly top the experience I just had?” So, I tried to be fair to myself and ease myself back into the transition: thus that is why two months later, I am just starting a job. I haven’t really noticed a change in my consumption other than the fact that I eat less, i try to eat to live, not live to eat. Also, living simply allows me to begin to save money for future adventures, and allows others to ‘simply live.’

All in all, the transition was difficult, I cannot lie.

Hawkeye 04

#3

This is a subject that someone could and should write a book about. Can you believe finishing at Springer (SOBO) and lusting for the idea of turning around and doing it again? For real.

I’ve heard some suggest a 6-month hiatus before going back to work. Instead, why not do something in the interim - work as a ridge runner; trail maintenance crew; assistb at a hostel, etc. Anything that gradually gets you back into the swing of things. I just don’t think I could afford to not work for 6-months after finishing a hike.

Another suggestion - keep in touch with those you met on the trail - email, mail, phone. I think the personal friendships made are very important to keeping a “piece of the trail” with you in the future.

JAWS

#4

I finished my Thru on 28 July 03 and I still am ajusting back. I think about the trail everyday. This web-site keeps me sane. Keeping in touch with friends you made on your hike does help allot. I lost 35 pounds. I gained back 25. My Thru completely changed my life. I long to be out there again. My time will come soon.

Subman Ga-Me 03

Subman

#5

There was a great article in the July/Aug 04 ATN magazine on weight gain after a long distance hike. He mentioned that Colin Fletcher, who wrote “The Complete Walker”, had developed heart disease, even with his level of activity and talked about how thru hikers tend to gain back all (if not more than) the weight they lost on the trai. The advice pretty much paralleled info on the zone or south beach “diets”. It was pretty true for me and Bushwhack when we finished. We have since “seen the error of our ways” and seriously try to watch our refined carb intake and cut out all hydrogenated fats (also trying to keep cholesterol levels in check…even 6 months of hiking won’t help that apparently). If you can’t find a copy let us know and we’ll get one to you. It was pretty interesting…

Bramble 01

#6

Yeah Bramble, you’re dead right. Go to the Gathering or Trail Days. The majority of the alumni hikers are fat. Most of the modern “trail legends” are chubby dudes. Even the ones who hike every yr seem to be on the plump side. I really believe even 6 months of a bad diet is pretty detrimental to your body. Eating whatever you want is not necessarily OK just cause you’re burning lots of calories everyday. Having this “I can eat anything” attitude post Trail is a terrible idea and thats why most of us gain the weight back (and then some). I lost about 25 lbs in 03’ and have gained about half of it back, but it’s not easy to maintain I’ve got to work at it. Even 15 months removed from the AT, I still get those bad cravings and have the occasional binges of crappy food. Once you have that lifestyle, you want to always be able to eat like there’s no tomorrow…

A-Train

#7

Pre Trail - 155 lbs Damascus - 150lbs

Now - 178 lbs

I think I’m one of those chubby dudes at Trail Days. It’s slowly coming off, thank god. Watch what you eat post trail, otherwise it’ll jump up and land straight on your ass, belly or face…or all three.

Cheers :bawling

Cheers

#8

I lost 32lbs. Have gained back 27. It comes back on Immediatedly unless you replace the trail with something just as absorbing.

bluevist

#9

My kids didn’t recognize me. Dog bit me. Wife plump with another man’s baby.

www.hikingdestroysfamilies.com

Teach

#10

I just went hiking in the smokies this week… I’ve been home three months and still trying to adjust. went to smokies and walked the AT some more… felt real good… ran into some folks I met up in Monson in August. Ran into a northbounder (Icehouse)… brrrr…

aswah

aswah

#11

LMFAO Teach! I guess now we’re going to have a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw long-distance hiking. At least in the Red States.

Skyline

#12

Feel it? Feel the love?

Tyger

#13

A lot of the immediate post-trail issues do go away, or fade in time. At first the consumerism culture feels very alien. Some comedies on television don’t seem at all funny, some dramas seem hilarious because they are so unreal. Cities can be very hard to cope with - any type of crowded and over busy situation. At the Gathering there are always a few who are shell-shocked at the crowds and stay off in the fringes because they can’t handle them. After our CDT hike we holed up for about two months, unable to deal with outsiders who didn’t KNOW. Dealing with the petty frustrations of ordinary life - bosses, traffic, taxes, chores - just doesn’t seem that important. Many thruhikers aren’t ready to go back to work for two or three or more months after they get off the trail. It just doesn’t seem to matter. At first it feels as if everything about you is different - then you see that you are still you, you still carry a lot of the same old baggage, but your ability to cope or ways of dealing with it has changed. Your priorities have changed. Your interests have changed.

For some, the thruhike fades into just a good memory. For other people, the thruhike becomes the beacon of what it is to be truly happy, and you decide to structure your life so other long hikes or other adventures are possible. An ‘ordinary’ life just doesn’t appeal. I think even those who go back to a totally nonhiking life still aren’t ordinary. They maintain the memories of a different way of life that does affect how they see the world and the people around them. We know that life is good and people are extraordinary. We have known trail angels and trail magic. When people say to us “Life sucks!” We know that that just isn’t so. Life can be truly wonderful.

To cope now, post trail – go hike or do other physical activity as much as possible. There is a real effect in going from daily hard exercise to no exercise at all. The body doesn’t like it. Eat healthy - get the milk, fruit and veggies you couldn’t eat on the trail. Keep in contact with trail friends. They understand and they are going through the same things. Family and non-hiking friends will never really understand what the trail means to you. Find new goals - the trail was the whole of your life for a lot of months in the planning, preparation and doing of it. Find something that you can care about that much - whether hiking, school, new job, new home, new hobby, etc. Finally, give back to the trail. There are a lot of ways - but maintainers are always needed. Much more than more trail feeds.

Ginny

#14

For me…it has gotten easier to cope with getting off the trail. I KNOW I will find my way back and I live in places with lots of wild space. I have figured out, to a certain degree, how to take the peace and beauty with me. I remember on the final day of the PCT… crying out a lonely farewell to the trail… tears rolling down my face. I think I would have walked right on up to AK if I could have. The walks most definitely change you. I seem to always be plotting how to get back out…whether up here in AK or in the States. I see the world much differently then I used to…so incredibly sweet and sad at the same time. I used to find it very difficult to try and adapt back to the " real world " and then I just STOPPED trying . I move thru it alot calmer now and always always always try and live in places that can feed my need for unfettered space. I don’t make much $$ but I don’t need much to live… Funny, when i go back to see my family who is caught up in the money wheel i get anxious… bewildered at all the running around ! i can’t WAIT to get to my life…strange as it may be to them…

yappy

#15

I’ve never liked the term “real world” when referring to civilization. That implies that the hiking world is not real, when in fact I think it’s more “real” than civilization. In the hiking world, we get to see the good in people, there is very little pretending and a whole lot of honesty. Your true colors are shown — good and bad — because the constraints of society have been removed. My hiking buddies and I don’t call civilization the “real world”. We call it the “other world”.

A line from one of my favorite hiking songs: “Although civilization is a nice place to visit, I wouldn’t want to live there.”

Re-entry into the other world is the toughest part of a hike. When I finished the AT (my first hike), I was totally lost. Bordering on depressed. Looking back, I think it was because the life I had grown to love was gone, and I mourned it. But then I realized that it’s NOT gone, that you CAN go back. It will be a different trail, a different year, with different people and experiences. But you CAN go back.

I’m struggling with re-entry now, just one week after leaving the trail. I spent the whole summer on the CDT trying to not be misplaced, yet now that I’m home, I feel more misplaced than ever. I know that once I get back into the working world, I will adapt. My hiking life will still be there in my mind, and I’ll have the flashbacks, but I will play along with the rules and constraints of the other world.

. . . . . until I can escape again.

yogi

#16

1998 MAY–GA=270 pounds–OCT, ME=198 Pounds

2000 March–GA=256 Pounds–OCT, ME = 222 Pounds

2001 GA=249 pounds–August NH= 220 pounds

2003 April, GA-265 pounds OCT, ME= 220 pound

the last three were end to enders…now Im back to 245…so it is a strangte thing, but with my foot injuy being beyound ridiculous now, it means I have to work out in other ways. I hiked considerable miles this year while living in New Hampshire and editing my doc, and some in GA before coming to see my Mom for a month…but the thing is, most do gain back more or stay the same…the starvation mode for me returns every year, much as with a bear or other natural beings, and hiking a lot has everything to do with that.

I seriously lose wieght during the Spring without trying, and lard up from Late Sept–Feb…odd as hell. It wasnt like that before I began long distance hiking.

ANd You will miss the woods when you are done…every day.

Lion King

#17

Lately, I’ve been voraciously reading any posts I can find on the emotional aspects of hiking. Threads about post-hike adjustments, motivations for hiking, the changes incurred while on the trail have made me wonder – why exactly is it that thru-hikers seem to enjoy the “rigours” of trail life so much? And why do they (soon I can say WE, I hope!) have difficulty adjusting back to the ‘real world?

My theory is that successful long-distance hikers, at the start of their hike (and perhaps long before), did not feel like they fit into their ‘real’ world. However, they did not see their ideal life as a real, tangible possibility. Maybe because their friends and family seemed content with their seemingly ordinary lives, the future hikers tried to fit into the mold.

Then they went for a long hike, and lived out a dream. It changed everything. Suddenly, the hikers realized that there are others out there that share their misfit ways. (No offence, I promise I mean ‘misfit’ in the most loving way possible. I also think that finding others who share your views is a very strong pull – we are herd animals, aren’t we?) They also realized that their ideal life is a concrete possibility.

Pre-hike, they were living in twilight. Because they had never seen the sun, this was the best possible life. During the hike, they were thrust into a life in the full, shining noon-time sun.

Post-hike, they just could not go back to twilight, after having seen a better life.

Who knows, not me. The longest I’ve been hiking for is 2 weeks. But I wanted to put the theory out there, because I think it may fit for some. So, does anyone accept or reject these ideas?

nunyet

#18

Nunyet, very wise ideas…you’re dead on.

I had a rough time re-entering normal college life again after the AT. In fact life is still hard when always thinking about wanting to be somewhere else. It really depressed me for awhile.

For me, it wasn’t that I disliked my normal life. Up until I learned of hiking the AT, I was pretty content with friends, family, school, activites and hobbies. It was my dream and a dream come true it was (as banal and cheezy as that sounds.) Unfortunately but FORTUNATELY I was 20 yrs old when I finished. Its not that I disliked the life I went back to, it was just more difficult after coming off such a high, living the exciting, adventurous, care-free life. Where else can you say you slept in a different place almost eveyr night for 5 months? It was a quick glimpse into a new dimension, but then I returned and I’ve had to figure out how to bring some of that excitement back to the other world. It’s hard let me tell you…

A-Train

#19

Heck, I had trouble remembering to put on deodorant for long time after my hike!

The hardest part about adjusting has been that life on the Trail means living by your own rules. Hike when you want, as fast as you want, eat when you’re hungry, etc. Then you get back to civilization and suddenly you’re a Pavlov dog, living according to alarms and collecting a paycheck because you’re doing what other people tell you to. No longer are you doing what you want to do, you’re doing what you have to do, and that’s a big difference. Needless to say, I’ve been a real pain in the rear at work.

0101

#20

whew! Good to know that someone else can’t remember the deodorant! I have to keep some in my car, because I never remember to put it on when I get dressed.

yogi

yogi